しめゆ – I think this is related to しめなわ (shimenawa), the rope used to demark sacred areas. So “roped off” or something like that. At any rate, doing something to prevent either coming or going.

An interesting note about this waka of Princess Nukata: it resounds with the repeated mora shi; it hits squarely on the 7-morae phrases, twice in the final one (kaneteshiri … hateshi … shimeyuwamashio). Shi, of course, is the homonym of both the number four (四) and death (死). Appropriately, according to the headnote to this poem, it was composed at the time of Emperor Tenji’s internment at the temporary mortuary. Seemingly the repetition of shi in this poem not only reflects the semantic content, but also creates a visual pun with shi repeated exactly four times. Whether Princess Nukata composed this poem with such premeditation is unclear, but the mere appearance of repetition at the very least bespeaks a remarkable coincidence. A little off the wall, but interesting to think about.